I put in a pond 2 years ago and all is well except the suspended clay particles are not settling at all.
Been there!
If you have enough chemicals dissolved in your water, neither fish, wind, or lack of plants can muddy it up significantly.
Once your water is treated, beware of inflow and outflow. You don't want your treated water escaping, and being replaced with soft rain water. Rain water if course is the worst kind for holding clay in suspension.
If you have full time or temporary access to well water, it may be a cheaper alternative to chemicals. That's assuming of course the well water is fairly hard. One good fill up with hard well water can last forever if you have little to no outflow.
